Congress

Capitol agenda: GOP gets louder as Trump gets pushier

Published

1 month ago

June 18, 2026

President Donald Trump has pushed Senate Republicans to the brink of their patience, and they’re not staying quiet about it.

The president in recent weeks has been firing out missives Republicans view as bad decisions that undermine their ability to deliver legislative wins as the midterms approach.

The latest irritation was the early-morning Truth Social post Wednesday, where Trump upended GOP plans to quickly confirm Jay Clayton as the new director of national intelligence and revive a key surveillance bill that the president already derailed earlier this month.

“The president’s timing and communication needs improvement,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said. “I think it’s unfortunate. It throws a kicker into the system when we get going and then we have to readjust.”

Trump’s U-turn on Clayton is one of several fronts where senators have pushed back in recent weeks. Republicans also foiled plans to fund part of his White House ballroom project in a recent immigration enforcement funding deal and forced the Justice Department to abandon plans for a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

Sen. John Kennedy answered “No” when asked if Trump takes senators into consideration: “He wants what he wants, and until he gets it, he just keeps pushing.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, who announced his retirement last year after breaking with Trump on policy legislation, said the dynamic is “undermining our ability to produce the very results he wants.”

The frustrations are also bubbling up as the president is trying to sell an Iran peace deal that a section of his party despises (more on this below).

To Trump, the solution is simple: None of this would matter if Republicans would just follow his lead.

Trump has handed Republicans a midterm playbook they’re unlikely, and unable, to heed: get rid of the filibuster, fire the Senate parliamentarian and pass an election security overhaul known as the SAVE America Act.

“If everyone just follows his lead, follows the blueprints he’s laid out, and runs on the record that he has, then I think we’ll fare well,” said a senior White House official, granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Trump’s controversial demands, however, have been unfortunately timed as lawmakers have been on the precipice of delivering policy goals. His naming of Bill Pulte as acting DNI, for example, blew up a brewing three-year deal on reauthorizing a key piece of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. His announcement of the DOJ payout fund delayed and nearly killed a critical immigration funding bill.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said his relationship with Trump was “fine” amid the public turmoil. He later explained in an interview the White House and Senate Republicans do a “fair amount of coordination.”

“But sometimes you get surprised,” he added. “It’s a business model the White House employs, and we’ve had to figure out how to be adaptable.”

What else we’re watching:

— TRUMP’S IRAN DEAL RACKS UP BIPARTISAN CRITICS: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle panned the details of the memorandum of understanding Trump signed in hopes of ending the conflict in Iran. Sen. Bill Cassidy called the agreement “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.” “Before the war, the strait was open, Iran was being crushed by sanctions, and 13 service members were still alive,” Cassidy posted on X. “Now, 13 Americans are dead, families have paid billions at the pump, sanctions will be lifted, and the bombing has stopped.”

— SENATE GOP COOL ON ‘RECON 3.0’: Senate Republicans have taken no concrete steps toward advancing Trump’s ask for a $350 billion party-line bill to fund the military and notch other conservative policy victories. Senators acknowledge the tough path for marshaling 50 votes behind such a measure on their side of the Capitol just months before the midterms. Members and aides in interviews this week said it was becoming clear any “Reconciliation 3.0” would be a House-led effort.

Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill, Katherine Tully-McManus, Megan Messerly, Alex Gangitano and Myah Ward contributed to this report.

Congress

Scalise will kick off August campaign sprint in marquee Nebraska House race

Published

53 seconds ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is zeroing in on one of House Republicans’ biggest contests — a purple district in Nebraska — when he starts his recess campaign sprint.

Scalise will travel to Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the Omaha area for an event with Republican Brinker Harding in the coming days, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter granted anonymity to share plans not yet made public. Republicans are digging in to defend the seat, which Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential race and is among Democrats’ best pick up opportunities this fall as they seek to flip the House.

Harding is running against Democratic consultant Denise Powell to replace retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon. Bacon, a moderate-leaning Republican, flipped the Omaha district red in 2016.

After Nebraska, Scalise is planning to travel across the country throughout August, including to defend GOP incumbents Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ and Zach Nunn’s key battleground seats in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts and Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District.

He’ll boost candidates working to flip blue districts like Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, Derek Merrin in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District and Mike LiPetri in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.

Scalise also plans to travel to Michigan, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas for campaign events over the August recess.

Congress

Trump needles Cornyn as Blanche remains blocked

Published

4 hours ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump goaded John Cornyn on social media Friday morning, accusing the Texas senator of withholding his vote on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination in retaliation for Trump’s central role in his political demise.

Cornyn, who lost his May primary to Texas’ scandal-ridden attorney general, the Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, has threatened to block Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee until the White House promises to permanently shelve its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” in writing — something Trump appears unwilling to do.

“John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called “Fund,” which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Several Republicans bristled at the fund, which could have been deployed to compensate Americans who faced charges after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and which gives the president and his family audit immunity over taxes. At his July confirmation hearing, Blanche said that the fund, part of a settlement the president reached with the IRS, was defunct. But the administration has been “reluctant to change” the text of the settlement, Cornyn told reporters Thursday.

Trump signaled his continued support for the Jan 6 rioters on Friday.

“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he wrote. “Millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide Presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his Election to an opponent that I Endorsed.”

On Thursday, the president suggested that he could punt a Senate vote on Blanche until after Cornyn — and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — leaves the chamber at the end of the year. Cornyn, however, suggested on social media that there are other Republican senators with concerns about the fund.

“After the midterms, who knows who’s going to be the next United States senator from North Carolina or Texas?” Cornyn told reporters.

Congress

Capitol agenda: The Senate’s fly-out agenda takes shape

Published

5 hours ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Republicans are prepping a jam-packed — if somewhat optimistic — agenda for their final week before summer recess.

Majority Leader John Thune wants to move stopgap funding through Dec. 11, bipartisan Russia sanctions legislation and a bloc of nominees — perhaps including attorney general pick Todd Blanche.

He’s also under pressure from President Donald Trump, administration officials and many of his GOP colleagues to adopt a budget resolution — the first step in unlocking another party-line spending bill.

Leaders are prioritizing the stopgap, though. Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) expects continuing resolution text to be unveiled later today, she told reporters Thursday, and an initial vote is expected Monday evening.

Still TBD: Collins wants to use the funding patch to block the Trump administration from putting political appointees in charge of approving grants — a demand Democratic senators are also making.

The decision is in Thune’s hands. He acknowledged a “handful of issues” are still under consideration with the CR, and said he’s “hoping both sides can come together and figure” them out.

As for the sanctions bill, leaders of both parties are still trying to work out a deal to fast-track the legislation amid concerns from some Democrats and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that it gives Trump too much tariff power.

In addition to the nominees package, Thune also hasn’t ruled out an initial vote on the landmark cryptocurrency bill both parties have spent months negotiating or teeing up a bipartisan college sports overhaul now in final stages of talks.

But the big question is whether Republicans can take a major step toward another reconciliation bill by advancing a budget resolution.

Thune met Thursday with Budget Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who said he was “optimistic in terms of how things are kind of coming together.”

Republicans anticipate giving a number of Senate committees instructions for the bill, setting up a lengthy and politically painful process ahead of adoption despite pushes for urgency from the White House.

Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was the latest official to head to Capitol Hill to try and light a fire under top Republicans. But GOP senators don’t necessarily see the urgency.

“The hard part is the president wants to be able to move fast, like an executive can move, and we’re a legislative branch,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). “It doesn’t move that fast.”

What else we’re watching:

— BLANCHE TEETERING: Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general isn’t dead yet. But it’s certainly on life support. The acting AG met with Cornyn and Tillis Thursday at NRSC headquarters, and one person familiar with the discussion said the group was “working collaboratively now.” But it would now be difficult to confirm him before August recess under Senate rules.

— FARM BILL TEXT: Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman said his farm bill legislative text — originally expected Thursday — could come Friday or Saturday. The bill, which is expected to include language allowing year-round E15 sales and a potential compromise on postponing GOP-led cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is set to be marked up Thursday.

Jordain Carney and Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.